Jayakumar issues ultimatum to Malaysia

MALAYSIA'S claim to a legal right to retain its customs and immigration facilities at Tanjong Pagar railway station must be settled because it involves Singapore's sovereignty, said Professor S. Jayakumar yesterday.

Only after it acknowledges the republic's undisputed sovereignty in the matter can other outstanding bilateral issues be tackled as a package, the Foreign Affairs Minister told parliament.

It has another month, effective from yesterday, to submit its legal arguments to back its claim, he added. If it does not do so by then, Singapore will assume that it no longer wishes to pursue the claim.

Replying to questions from opposition MP Low Thia Khiang and Nominated MP Simon Tay, he said: "If this legal issue is not resolved, we cannot proceed on the package of issues to be negotiated because it will not be productive.

"There will always be a question mark over the CIQ issue; are we negotiating on the basis of inherent legal right? Will they claim it in future? If they claim it in future, then it will not be resolved. So, it will have to be put behind us."

Taking the House through the details of the Customs, immigration and quarantine (CIQ) facilities saga that had affected bilateral ties last year, he noted that Singapore has rejected Malaysia's claim that its CIQ had a legal right to be at Tanjong Pagar. But it had given it three months, until last Oct 31, to submit written legal arguments to substantiate its claim.

Singapore agreed to a request to extend the deadline by 1-1/2 months, to Dec 15. But Malaysia neither submitted the arguments nor an explanation, despite a reminder. Singapore then sent it a Third Person Note, and his ministry's permanent secretary had spoken to his Malaysian counterpart and told him it was waiting for a reply.

On Dec 26, Foreign Minister Abdullah Badawi replied. He referred to the meeting by the two countries' prime ministers in Hanoi on Dec 17, where they had agreed to discuss and seek solutions to all outstanding bilateral issues as a package, including the location of the CIQ.

He said that this latest agreement between the two leaders superseded any previous undertaking at the officials' level. Malaysian officials, he added, would be ready to begin negotiations sometime after Hari Raya.

Malaysia, therefore, had taken the position that the deadline no longer mattered, noted Prof Jayakumar.

He said he had replied on Dec 30 to point out that Mr Goh Chok Tong had told Dr Mahathir Mohamad that Singapore's position on the CIQ issue was straightforward: Malaysia would have to recognise Singapore's sovereignty and not claim that it has a legal right to operate its CIQ here. "If so, he was prepared to discuss the next step. PM Goh added that although there was no legislation allowing Malaysian Immigration to operate in Singapore, he was prepared to discuss the possible location of Malaysia's CIQ facilities in Singapore as part of a package of bilateral issues to be resolved.

"But first of all, the question of whether Malaysia still claims to have a legal right to be at Tanjong Pagar had to be resolved," he said. He added that when Mr Goh met the press after that, he had told them that Malaysia should still give Singapore its legal arguments.

"In my reply, we have stressed that any negotiations on the location of the CIQ could proceed only after Singapore's sovereignty over Tanjong Pagar and Woodlands has been acknowledged and not disputed," said the minister.

"This is a question of Singapore's sovereignty, just as Malaysian airspace is a question of Malaysia's sovereignty. When Malaysia refused the RSAF permission to fly over Malaysia, Singapore acknowledged this sovereignty. We expect them to acknowledge our sovereignty."

Published in the Straits Times. Jan 21, 1999